This book examines naval operations in the 40 years from the beginning of the American Revolution to the end of the War of 1812. Writing for the general reader, Miller provides a wealth of detail on wooden ships of war ranging from small sloops to huge ships of the line carrying over a hundred cannons and the international crews who sailed them, along with biographies and analyses of the prominent leaders of the period: Horatio Nelson, Richard Lord Howe, John Paul Jones, Comte de Grasses, Oliver Hazard Perry and others.

The great battles Trafalgar, Lake Erie, the Glorious First of June and many more receive their due, as do the many ship-to-ship combats of the era, including the victories of the American frigate Constitution ("Old Ironsides") and other engagements involving England, France, Spain, the Barbary pirates and several other European nations. Descriptions of dreadful living conditions aboard cramped wooden vessels give way to bloody decks after close combat. Miller goes beyond a dry retelling of these famous events to examine the political situations that led to the wars of the period, making this a solid introduction to a turbulent era at sea.